Faulty Work Equipment Compensation
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Workers should be able to go to work in an environment which won’t cause injury or illness. So, if you’ve experienced a defective work equipment accident at work and suffered personal injury, this is very unfair.
However, employers have a legal duty of care to protect employees. If this duty is breached and you’ve been hurt in an accident at work, it is only right that you should be able to claim injury compensation from a negligent employer. It’s important to seek medical attention as early as you can if the injury caused was not your fault.
There are many ways an accident at work could happen in the workplace. Often, these accidents happen due to faulty equipment that hasn’t been properly maintained by your employer.
Accidents are also likely to happen in circumstances where employers are negligent or breach their statutory duties. If you have been injured in accident at work because of faulty equipment, through no fault of your own, you can make a faulty equipment injury claim.
To find out whether you could bring a no win no fee claim for compensation for faulty work equipment injuries, get in touch with an advisor on 0800 234 6438, or enter your details into this form and we can arrange for you to have specialist legal advice.
FACT
Of the 113 fatalities that occurred in workplace accidents in the UK in 2019-2020, 14% involved contact with moving machinery
Faulty work equipment claims can be brought in relation to any injury or condition caused by defective equipment. Workers hurt in these types of accident can bring personal injury claims to recover compensation.
The legal meaning of ‘equipment’ for workplace injury purposes is surprisingly very wide-ranging – it is legally defined by equipment regulations as “any machinery, appliance, apparatus, tool or installation for use at work”. It includes the tools of trade in any sector and industry – in fact, the courts have previously stated that it means “almost any equipment used at work’ .
It’s hard to think of something in use in the workplace that doesn’t meet the definition of equipment. So, work equipment includes large pieces of machinery and plant, as well as small items such as mobile devices, and even stationery equipment which can cause electric shock. It also includes remote-controlled and self-propelled work equipment and other items.
If you have an injury sustained while using any type of equipment or tool at work, and it was someone else’s fault – you can seek compensation.
Unsurprisingly, the huge range of work equipment across the UK’s varying sectors and industries means that there are innumerable types of faulty or defective equipment. The most common types of faulty equipment include:
It may surprise you to know that a failure to provide instructions or operating manuals can also amount to faulty or a defective equipment. Where an accident occurred because of errors in a manual, get in touch with our advisors.
CASE STUDY
Vue Cinemas was fined £750,000 in July 2019 after it admitted health and safety breaches that led to a movie-goer’s death. Ateeq Rafi, who was 24 when he died, was watching a movie when he bent down to pick up his mobile phone. His neck was trapped by the electronic footrest and staff had to remove bolts from the chair to free him. He was deprived of oxygen and died later in hospital. The trial judge said there was a complete lack of risk assessment.
It would be impossible for an employer to eliminate every risk, as accidents can and do happen. But they do have a duty to take reasonable steps to keep you safe and make sure risks are as reduced wherever possible.
While no-fault accidents can happen involving faulty or defective work equipment, they are typically the result of employer failure of some kind.
If a piece of equipment was faulty – i.e. didn’t operate in the way it was intended to – and this defect was responsible for your injury, then you should be able to seek compensation to cover the effects your defective equipment injury has had on your life and finances.
Faulty equipment can be extremely dangerous, posing a risk of potentially significant injury. The biggest risks include electrocution, limb amputations and crush injuries
That said, the fact is that the types of injuries resulting from faulty or defective work equipment can vary depending on the equipment involved and the circumstances that led to your injury. Examples of typical injuries from defective work equipment could include:
While some accident cause minor injuries with short recovery times, faulty work equipment can also cause serious, long-lasting injuries. No matter how serious or minor your case is, you deserve to be compensated in a fair way if you’ve suffered due to an employer’s negligence.
The most serious incidents involving faulty equipment can result in death. In these tragic cases, the family has the right to bring a faulty equipment injury claim.
Whether you’ve suffered minor or serious injuries sustained in an accident involving faulty machinery, your solicitors will help you claim the maximum compensation you deserve.
Your claim will include ‘general’ damages compensating you for your pain and suffering caused by defective equipment because your employer failed to protect you.
In such a claim, you can also claim ‘special’ damages for your financial losses, such as lost wages and other lost income, prescription costs, the cost of private medical treatment, rehabilitation and other costs.
If you are seriously injured in accident caused by defective equipment and you’re suffering financial hardship, you may be able to claim interim payments ahead of a final compensation award. However, interim payments can only be paid in the event of financial hardship if the other side accepts liability, but you can be assured your solicitor will work hard to ensure the negligent employer accepts responsibility.
Get in touch with us and we can arrange for a no win no fee claim under a conditional fee agreement, which removes the financial risk to you in making a claim.
The law provides robust protection for UK workers who use equipment and machines in the workplace. Employers have strict legal responsibilities and obligations to ensure the workplace is safe, including that work equipment is safe and fit for purpose.
They should also have procedures and processes in place to identify promptly any risks to health and to deal with problems in a timely way. These are known as ‘risk assessments’ and should be carried out regularly. In fact, one of the most common causes of injuries is the lack of a risk assessment.
The key employment law requirements that apply are:
This sets out the general responsibilities of all employers. It states that they have a duty to protect their employees’ health, safety and welfare – and that those who fail in this duty are liable for that accident or injury.
These rules deal specifically with lifting equipment and reflect the inherent dangers specifically associated with this type of equipment. The LOLER requires, for example, that employers make sure all operations involving lifting equipment must be properly planned by a competent person, appropriately supervised and carried out safely.
Lifting equipment must also undergo regular ‘through examinations’ which must be followed by full records of the exam. Any detected defects must be reported not only to whoever is responsible for the equipment – but also to the relevant enforcing authority (either the local authority or the HSE).
These cover pressure equipment with a maximum allowable pressure PS above 0.5 bar. They do not apply to equipment put on the market before 8 December 2016; or to situations where pressure equipment is assembled on the site of and under the responsibility of a user who was not the manufacturer.
The regulations detail specific safety requirements that employers must satisfy, and if they fail to do so, the risk of equipment injury increases.
Personal protective equipment is any equipment that protects workers from the risk of injury. This includes helmets, eye protection and safety footwear. However, note that these regulations do not apply to hearing protection or respiratory protective equipment.
Employers are required to ensure they select the right PPE for the job in hand, that it takes into account environmental conditions in which it is to be used and that it is fit for purpose. Workers should also have adequate instructions on how to use the PPE safely.
These impose duties on both employers and employees in relation to their use of electricity in the workplace. Employers, for instance, must maintain electrical systems and carry out work on them to prevent danger
Employers must also take into account the Supply of Machinery (Safety) Regulations 2008 (as amended). These set out the requirements that must be met before machinery can be placed on the market in Great Britain or put into service. They must carry an appropriate CE mark (UKCA if post-1 January 2021) showing how the machinery meets essential safety requirements.
These rules place many important duties on people and companies who own or have control over work equipment, and those who require employees to use equipment that might not be owned by them.
Defective work equipment can be extremely dangerous and the government imposed these important regulations to tighten up worker safety wherever equipment, tools and machinery is used to reduce the risk of faulty equipment injury. Since it was introduced in 1998, PUWER has become particularly important and is applicable to all equipment used in the workplace.
PUWER places specific duties on businesses, including:
It is obvious how wide-ranging an employer’s responsibility is as far as work equipment is concerned. The risks are potentially so great that employers absolutely must implement clear processes and procedures governing how, and at what intervals they take all reasonable steps necessary to comply with PUWER and related regulations.
These requirements also apply to mobile equipment, so if your work takes you from business to business, or to domestic homes for installations, for instance, the rules apply just as much to the equipment you use in those places as they do on work premises.
The majority of employers do take their responsibilities extremely seriously – they want to protect the health of their workers and also their own reputation. But sometimes things can go wrong; and if there are any failings in these requirements and accidents happen causing injury, then faulty work equipment claims can follow.
Your employer’s health and safety responsibilities towards workers extends to equipment that does not actually belong to the business. This means that the fact that you were using your own equipment does not mean the employer escapes responsibility.
Importantly, PUWER specifically states that it covers equipment which employees provide for their own use at work. It also includes other equipment used during the course of work that the employer itself does not own, for instance, if other workers have brought in their own tools or machines for others to use.
It is always sensible to tell your employer if you intend bringing in your own equipment to work or have brought it in, so that they can then carry out the necessary inspections. However, the ultimate responsibility lies with the business to ensure that:
So if you have been injured while using your own, or another worker’s equipment in the workplace, your employer may be liable for your injuries.
In short, yes: workers who are not actually operating or using the equipment but are simply cleaning or inspecting it, and get hurt in the process, can make faulty equipment claims.
The reasons is – regulations apply to the “use of work equipment” which is interpreted widely. It means any activity involving work equipment, so it includes servicing, cleaning and maintaining the equipment; programming and setting a machine; repairing and modifying equipment; and even transporting it.
This means employers are legally expected to take appropriate measures to ensure maintenance operations, cleaning, inspection etc of work equipment can be done safely. Poor maintenance is a significant risk factor to the health of those who operate machinery.
All these activities involving work equipment, particularly machines and larger pieces of equipment, involve their own risks. It’s only fair that if a fault in the machine causes an equipment injury that the victim can make a claim for compensation.
FACT
A man was killed in an accident at work while repairing the high-pressure grease track adjusting mechanism on a piling rig while working on a Premier Inn construction site. While the repair was under way, a high-pressure stream of grease was ejected from the equipment fatally injuring 24-year-old Ben Whylie.
An HSE inspector said the accident could have been avoided had a risk assessment been undertaken and a safe system of work devised. The employer, Ruislip Plant, was fined £99,000 and ordered to pay £116,973 in costs.
Health and safety is a hotly debated topic, with some seeing these laws as red tape that burdens businesses – however, statistics from the Health and Safety Executive show just how important it is that there are rules in place to protect people from personal injury caused by defective equipment in an accident at work.
There were, for instance, 1.6 million working people suffering from a work-related illness in 2019-2020; and 142 workers were killed in 2021-2021 according to RIDDOR. There are also an increasing number of non-fatal injuries in the workplace: in 2019-2020 693,000 workers reported non-fatal injuries – up from 581,000 on the year previously.
CASE STUDY
A casual worker on a farm was airlifted to hospital after his arm was pulled into a potato harvesting machine which had been brought back into use after years out of action. A section of the machine should have been guarded but wasn’t. The man’s fingers and forearm bones were broken and muscle from his forearm removed by the machine. The farmer was successfully prosecuted under PUWER and fined £5,000.
FACT
218 accidents were recorded at the Health and Safety Executive itself and 57 people required medical treatment after an accident in the five years to 2020. Accidents reportedly involved injuries from machines. One HSE worker fell from a faulty chair and was paid £1,500 in compensation.
To make successful personal injury compensation claims, solicitors have to show that the employer was negligent and/or breached health and safety legislation. So for defective work equipment claims, the solicitor must prove:
No matter how your personal injury or condition was caused, if it can be shown that it resulted from your employer’s negligence you should succeed in a compensation claim.
More often than not, faulty work equipment claims are based on breach of statutory duty – ie, breach of health and safety rules and regulations, because it’s usually easier to prove than a ‘pure’ negligence claim.
As explained above, employers have very clear and specific legal obligations to take the appropriate measures to minimise the risk of personal injury caused by defective work equipment. Proving a breach will require evidence demonstrating a breach, ie that your employer did not take appropriate steps to minimise the risk of injury following a defective equipment accident, even a failure to carry out risk assessments.
The evidence and information you will be asked for might include:
It’s crucial that the strongest possible evidence and information is provided as early as you can, so that your personal injury lawyer can build the best possible case for you. For this reasons, it’s best to start faulty work equipment claims as soon as possible while the details are fresh in your mind and while any supporting evidence is easiest to gather.
Medical evidence is also important and your solicitor will arrange for a specialist medical report on your injuries caused at work. But don’t worry – this will not cost you anything upfront.
Get in touch with us and we will can guide you through the process of claiming compensation. We will partner you with experienced personal injury solicitors for legal advice. Contact us using our online claim form or call us for free on 0800 234 6438.
It is not uncommon for individuals who have been injured while working with or near defective work equipment think or assume they must have been to blame for what happened. However, in most cases that will not actually be the case, so if you believe the incident was your fault, you must talk things over with our specialist advisors who can put you in touch with a personal injury team.
For example, you may keep rehearsing the accident in your mind and have concluded that you must have done something to cause the piece of equipment to go wrong or you were using it wrongly. However, usually that is not the case – and it’s vital you talk it over with your personal injury lawyer who will explain the claims process; and take all the background information about the lead up to the incident to get to the bottom of what really caused the accident.
In some circumstances, you may assume your employer is not responsible because it was your own equipment, or one of your colleagues’. In some cases, that might be the case: for instance, suppose that you have come to work with own tool or equipment but you haven’t told your employer, even though all workers have been clearly instructed to inform your employer if they bring in equipment from work to use. If you then use it anyway and get injured as a result, it will not be fair or reasonable for your employer to be held responsible for your injuries.
However, if your employer knows that equipment has been brought in to be used in the workplace, but doesn’t take any safety measures in response; that indicates they could be held at least partly responsible.
So it’s important to understand that employers must comply with strict and robust health and safety rules and regulations to keep the risk of serious injury to a minimum, as far as they reasonably can. So don’t assume you cannot make a successful claim – always check with specialist advisors rather than lose your opportunity to make defective work equipment claim.
It could be that when you make a faulty equipment claim, your employer may argue that you were partly to blame for your injuries (or may even deny responsibility altogether). However, it is then the employer’s responsibility to prove you were to blame, for instance, that they can demonstrate you recklessly ignored an obvious problem but used the faulty equipment anyway.
Occasionally, a worker can be found partially to blame to blame for an accident involving faulty equipment (this is known as ‘contributory negligence’), in which case your employer would probably not have to pay you the full amount of compensation you would otherwise be entitled to. The full amount of compensation awarded to you would then be reduced by a proportionate amount to reflect your responsibility for the incident.
Always check your if you can make a no win no fee personal injury claim with specialist advisers as early as you can. It should not stop you claiming compensation, though it could reduce the amount of compensation you receive.
Businesses who order equipment for use in the workplace have every right to believe that when the equipment arrives it will be fit for use straightaway. But there are instances where equipment is faulty even before it leaves the warehouse, usually because of a manufacturing problem or it’s damaged during transit.
This is one of the many good reasons why health and safety regulations require employers to do proper safety checks and inspections both before and after installation. This is because there are scenarios where equipment is faulty when it reaches the employer. If faults are not picked up before they are used, whatever ‘use’ that may entail – there is a higher risk of injury.
Importantly, from the worker’s point of view – employers are liable even if the defect is a manufacturer’s fault. Under the Employer’s Liability (Defective Equipment) Act 1969 an employer is deemed negligent if:
So this means that if the inherently defective equipment causes injury, the employer should be held liable. That seems unfair for the employer, but the employer can then claim for compensation directly against the manufacturer or supplier.
There is, of course, no guarantee that all such faults will be picked up during initial safety inspections, but the employer will have discharged its legal obligation to the best of its ability to minimise any risks. It’s a very high burden for the employer to discharge, because the risk of injury can never be completely eliminated – the worker safety is paramount.
Nicola is a dual qualified journalist and non-practising solicitor. She is a legal journalist, editor and author with more than 20 years' experience writing about the law.
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